Land cover changes in the Rong Kwang District, Phrae Province based on a systematic remote sensing sampling approach

Abstract

The study was to provide consistent information on land cover changes between the years 2000 to 2015 for the Rong Kwang district Phrae province Thailand. These areas have been overlooked in terms of land cover change assessment if compared with efforts in monitoring the Rong Kwang district. For each of the target years (2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015) land cover information was obtained through an object-based classification approach for 83 sample units (1 km circular plot), using Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 8 images systematically located at each full degree confluence of latitude and longitude. The images were automatically pre-processed, segmented and labelled according to the following legend: Tree Cover (TC), Tree Cover Mosaic (TCM), Other Wooded Land (OWL), Other Land Cover (OLC) and Water (W). Our results indicate the Rong Kwang district lost (gross loss) respectively 17,100.40 rai and 145,848.15 rai of natural vegetation (TC + OWL) between 2000 and 2015. In the 2000-2005, these areas also experienced gain of TC and OWL. The annual (net) rate of natural vegetation cover loss in the Rong Kwang district slowed down from 0.22% yr -1 because the area is agricultural growing continuously in the northern area. While in the Rong Kwang district for the 2005 - 2010 the rate increased from 0.17% yr -1 because the northern area was very agricultural growing as a result, the price of agricultural crops decline. In summary, the Rong Kwang district experienced both loss and gains of tree cover and other wooded land continuously; In summary, the Rong Kwang district experienced both loss and gains of tree cover and other wooded land continuously; but the disturbed forest control by the price of agricultural crops

Keywords: land cover change, vegetation index, systematic sampling, deforestation

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